1837.] Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya. 219 



merit of the kingdom of Madura ; but their weight is in favour of a 

 colonisation from Northern India. That " Pandya of Oude," or " a 

 northern Pandion," had any personal part in the settlement of the coun- 

 try, is equally improbable. 



I am too well pleased to see topics of this nature become the sub- 

 ject of discussion at all to take any exception to Mr. Taylor's argu- 

 ments : our only chance of coming at the truth is by independent in- 

 vestigation, and a comparison of separate results. I have no purpose, 

 therefore, to impugn his deductions ; but I may be allowed to question 

 the value of one of his authorities to which I think he ascribes more 

 weight than it deserves. It is the manuscript in his first volume which 

 he calls " The Supplementary Manuscript and which he regards as 

 trustworthy.* I place no great reliance on any of the manuscripts 

 which profess to record the ancient history of the Peninsula, especial- 

 ly in periods of remote antiquity ; but there are greater sobriety, con- 

 sistency, and air of likelihood in some than in others; and in those of 

 the best description, there is a general conformity with each other, 

 or with classical Hindu tradition, which indicates their having been 

 compiled with some conscientiousness and care. The " Supplemen- 

 tary Manuscript" possesses no such characteristics : it is exceedingly 

 jejune and incoherent. In the first sections, the accounts which it 

 gives of the connexion and intercourse between the Pandya princes of 

 Madura, and the Pandavas of Hastinapura, although suggestsd by 

 some of the adventures of Arjuna, as described in the Mahabharata, 

 are wholly incompatible with the details found in that poem. The 

 names of the first dynasty of Madura kings differ from those of eveiy 

 other list yet met with; and there is nothing in the meagre notices 

 of them which gives them in a greater degree the character of realities. 

 Twenty-four princes are enumerated as reigning from the beginning 

 of the Kali age to the year 1183. To this dynasty succeeds Vikra- 

 maditya, a prince whom all tradition places in the year of Kali 3044. 

 Having thus so widely antedated the reign of Vikramaditya, the 

 compiler of this document is obliged to extend it in proportion ; and, 

 accordingly, it is made to continue until the year of Kali 3179, or 

 nearly 2000 years. We then have the reign of Salivahana for 990 

 years, and that of Bhoja for a century. In all this interval, or 3086 

 years, we have notice of only twenty-eight princes of Madura, and 

 names of no more than five. Then commences a Pandya dynasty, in 

 the appellations of the first of which, Soma Sundara, and of his suc- 

 cessors, we first meet with any agreement with other and more de- 

 tailed accounts. Here then we may admit some approach to accuracy ; 



* Vol. ii. p. 75. 



